One Day At A Time’s Isabella Gomez is at the Head Of The Class in HBO Max revival
One Day At A Time’s Isabella Gomez goes where Howard Hesseman and Billy Connolly have trod before in new sitcom
TV Reviews Head of the Class
If you don’t know or remember much about Head Of The Class, the ABC sitcom about a bunch of gifted high schoolers and their teacher, Mr. Moore (Howard Hesseman of WKRP In Cincinnati fame), that’s not such a bad way to enter into HBO Max’s revival of Head Of The Class. In fact, it’s fair to say that you could enter into the proceedings without even knowing that it was a revival, so little does the series rely on the audience’s nostalgia for the original series. What it does rely on, however, is the boundless wellspring of charisma and enthusiasm that is Isabella Gomez, late of One Day At A Time, and that’s great—provided, of course, that the show doesn’t solely coast on Gomez’s innate gifts.
The general premise of Head Of The Class is still the same in 2021 as it was in 1986: a rough-around-the-edges teacher is assigned to a group of gifted students and uses unorthodox educational methods to educate the kids on matters both in and out of the school, steering them to make the most of themselves even when they’re not in class. Admittedly, the teacher this time around—Alicia Gomez (played by the aforementioned Gomez)—isn’t just rough around the edges, she’s also wet behind the ears, which means that not only is there a considerable learning curve, but there’s also a tendency for Alicia to find the experiences of the kids feeling more familiar to her than the sensation of being a teacher and role model.
Fortunately, she’s got fellow teacher Elliot Olsen (Jorge Diaz) to help steer her in the right direction, and if that doesn’t do the trick, there’s always the semi-threatening presence of Principal Maris (Christa Miller) as backup. The eponymous class is decidedly smaller this time around: You get school swim champ Terrell (Brandon Severs), aspiring politician Luke (Gavin Lewis), his best bud and style maven Miles (Adrian Matthew Escalona), kinda-sorta tough coder girl Robyn (Dior Goodjohn), and tech whiz Makayla (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport).
These vague characterizations are all we learn about the students over the course of the first three episodes. But by the second episode, viewers are introduced to Sarah (Katie Beth Hall), a.k.a. Principal Maris’ daughter and a possible love interest for one of the other students. While the principal is clearly more of a secondary character at present, Miller is nonetheless well-utilized, and the fact that she’s both the principal and the mother of one of the students is a solid way to involve her more as the series progresses.
Still, you’d almost certainly never guess that Head Of The Class was executive produced by Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso, Scrubs) and Amy Pocha and Seth Cohen (Paradise P.D., American Vandal). Robin Givens reprises her character from the 1986 series, now the parent of one of the 2021 students. Her inclusion seems like an afterthought at best, a theory bolstered by the way the studio audience reacts to her first appearance.
Episode two also features a storyline where Alicia decides to indulge in some online gaming with Robyn in the hopes of swaying her into considering a career on the programming side of things, only for it to backfire. The series could do a lot worse than leaning into Alicia struggling with the realization that it’s one thing to empathize with her students, but it’s quite another to try to relate to them by stepping back and acting like the high school student she used to be.
It’s still unclear how much character development the new Head Of The Class will offer. But even in these early goings, the friendship between Luke and Miles is strong, and the interplay between Gomez and Diaz as fellow teachers and new friends is definitely fun. Gomez is just as delightful here as she was throughout the four-season run of One Day At A Time. Now we just need to see if the rest of the show can rise up to meet her—at the moment, it’s got quite a climb ahead of it.
42 Comments
If Isabella Gomez was my teacher, I am not sure I would be able to concentrate on my class work
Unless she’s a science teacher and she’s covering dinosaurs, because DINOSAURS KICK AAAAAASSSS!!!
Mystified as to why the kids all respond with a fist-pump when she reprimands them with an “I need to see you after class.”
I suddenly hear the opening drums of “Hot For Teacher” for some reason.
the words “see me after class” never sounded so good
Well, they’ve already improved on the original in one way: Those kids actually look like kids, not a bunch of actors on the wrong side of their twenties.
So you also think Arvid looked like a father of three and two decades of professional accounting experience?
He at least looked like he’d had a driver’s license for few years.
Ages of the cast of the original Head of the Class students when the show premiered:Avrid – 26Darlene – 22Simone – 18Alan – 26Eric – 22Sarah – 21Dennis – 20Janice – 12 (an actual child!)
“Those kids actually look like kids, not a bunch of actors on the wrong side of their twenties.”
Yeah, can you believe that only eight of the ten main students were 22 or under when the show started?
I hope they don’t bring Dan Schneider back. He a creep.
Yeah, I saw that image above and thought “they seem way too young” but then thought immediately after, “no, wait– the original ones were way too old”.
This was an easy one! F!
I remember nothing about this show other than referring to it as “Head Up My Ass,” because of course that’s hilarious.
Frisky Dingo had “Head of the Ass” as one of Xander Crews pornos, complete with a take off of the shows promo image.
“Turns out, that wasn’t even the real Howard Hesseman!…And also, way less boy-girl than the box art would’ve lead you to believe. Personal disappointment.”
What are we even talking about?
I guess this means One Day At A Time is truly dead. I really liked the reboot, although I don’t know that it really had anywhere else to go (and it got shuffled around a lot, too.)
Yeah, it died again when Pop decided to get rid of original shows to focus on repeats and become another worthless cable channel.
This may seem like a dumb ass question, but…did they bring back the original theme song?
Sadly, no. Just about a 10- or 15-second animated title card (w/annoying music), with actual credits run as text over the next minute or so of the show.I’m normally very condescending toward those “free the Snyder Cut” or “free the Ayer Cut” movements, but if someone wanted to start a “free the ‘Head of the Class’ Theme” movement, I’m right there with ya.
It’s not my favorite TV theme (that would be Benson), but Head of the Class had a fun theme song.
Counterpoint: no one wants an opening sequence more than 10 or 15 seconds, unless it’s Game of Thrones and is amazing and changes every week (and probably cost more than the entire season of this show).
You are not everyone. You also don’t know everyone. So, don’t say no one wants that. There are a bunch people disappointed everytime a rebooted or remake of a show loses the theme. See, the new Wonder Years. It’s part of the nostalgia. It’s also a streamer. People could skip it if they wanted to real easy.
True that’s why streaming apps have the skip intro button.
Well, this 23-year-old teacher is sure to impart lots of great advice based on her life experience.
So…which one of these kids is going to go on to become an enormously successful children’s show producer who is coincidentally involved with the careers of, like, half a dozen young women who end up suffering public meltdowns?
“While the principal is clearly more of a secondary character at present, Miller is nonetheless well-utilized, and the fact that she’s
married to the showrunnerboth the principal and the mother of one of the students is a solid way to involve her more as the series progresses.”—ok, that’s not how the html works here? Whatever.HTML doesn’t work, well, anywhere…too many asshole kids like me ending their posts with . B)You can just use the “Toggle Formatting Tools” button at the top-right of your edit window, select the stike-out text, and click the “strike-out” button. One of the few features that actually still works on kinja, so enjoy it while it lasts!
The eponymous class is decidedly smaller this time aroundI hadn’t realized it until you wrote this but, yeah, that class got kind of unwieldy. Wait…”got” is the wrong word as it was too big from the outset, but after the purge at the end of Season 3, it got even more so.
All I know about Head of the Class is that alleged pedophile Dan Schneider was on that show.
More importantly for the moment: so was Brian Robbins, the current president/CEO of Paramount Pictures, president of Nickelodeon and some kind of president with Viacom proper.
Holy shit! The tough kid with the heart of gold is now head of the class!
This is literally the first I’m hearing of this reboot.
Was the original Head of the Class even popular? A lot of mediocre 80s crud is being remade as if any people are clamoring for its revival.
It wasn’t “Cosby Show”- or “Cheers”-level successful, but it landed in the top 30 every season. It had limited syndication over the ensuing decades, which I think really hurt keeping awareness of it alive on a big scale. While it’s currently on HBO Max, the original HotC had been relegated to something like Roku TV or Tubi for streaming before.
I think these remakes are more about “what do we already own the rights to and can make on the ultra-cheap” than trying to appeal to a Head of the Class fan community or anything. Though the name recognition does help get the show noticed.
I mean, it’s HBO… Where’s the Small Wonder reboot? Where’s the HBO CEO of Tits these days?
I wonder what reboot Isabella Gomez will be in next when this gets cancelled. I’m hoping for a gender swapped Three’s Company.
While the principal is clearly more of a secondary character at present, Miller is nonetheless well-utilized, and the fact that she’s both the principal and the mother of one of the students is a solid way to involve her more as the series progresses.While I enjoyed watching Christa Miller on Drew Carey, Cougar Town, Scrubs, etc., the fact that her husband, Bill Lawrence, is Executive Producer, it pretty much guarantees that she will continue on the show. The two of them work well together.
“Her inclusion seems like an afterthought at best, a theory bolstered by the way the studio audience reacts to her first appearance.”
Studio audience? Might wanna get your hearing checked.
Not even a slight mention of the Billy Connolly season. Harsh.